With CMT’s “Party Down South” headed for its first-season finale at 9 p.m. Thursday (March 20), producer SallyAnn Salsano has captured white lightning in a bottle again. Creator of “Jersey Shore,” she cast eight young Southerners – four from Louisiana – and planted them in a Murrells Inlet, S.C., party house for the summer.

Beyond the Florida panhandle, the show has its critics. Ben Jones, who played the character Cooter on “The Dukes of Hazzard” TV series and went on to a brief career in politics, is one of them. Not long after the “Party Down South” premiere, Jones fired up an open letter to CMT’s corporate parent, Viacom, charging the company with “committing an act of what can only be called ‘cultural pornography’ by airing … a so-called ‘reality show’ in which a group of young men and women who call themselves ‘proud Southerners’ do things which no one, Southern or otherwise, could possibly be ‘proud’ of.”

And yet the castmembers are, as is the show’s creator.

“They’re unapologetically out there living their life,” said Salsano, CEO of 495 Productions, during a recent phone interview. “They're not pretending. It's just who they are. I had the same thing with ‘Jersey Shore,’ where people were judging them. Those were some of the nicest kids I met my entire life, and I feel the same way about these kids.

“If you put a camera in any one of our houses when we were that age, chances are they could've made a show about us that was fairly similar.

“When I was doing ‘Jersey Shore,’ the show wasn’t called ‘I Am From the Jersey Shore.’ It was called ‘Jersey Shore,’ which is a place. This show is not titled ‘Everyone From the South is Like This.’

“I'm not saying (the show should be called) ‘This is Murrells Inlet,’ but I'm definitely saying we were not the only people down there like this.”

The “Party Down South” that some viewers have enjoyed is different than the show Salsano imagined when she was conceiving it. The difference-making element, she said, was the cast.

“Casting is everything,” she said. “When I work with a network – like on ‘Jersey Shore’ -- I'm sure I come off like a lunatic. I'm always like, ‘You know, (I) have this feeling (about a potential cast member).’ There's something about how we pick the people here that is different.

“I try to not go into casting knowing exactly what I’m looking for. I don’t want a guy who’s like ‘this,’ or a girl who’s like ‘that.’

“If you meet someone and they catch you off-guard, or they come off a little unpredictable, it’s like, ‘Oh, my god. I’m totally interested in this (person).’ Besides meeting a ton of people – I’m always casting – I watch so much reality TV because I love it.”

When an audition kicks up sparks, she added, “I feel like, ‘OK, this is something that people haven’t seen before.’”

Salsano said she had that feeling from the beginning about Ryan “Daddy” Richards, an Orange Beach, Ala., native who didn’t seem to immediately hit it off with his fellow cast members.

“I was surprised in the beginning about how not into Daddy everyone was, because I was in love with Daddy from the second we met him,” she said. “I did the interview with him on the second day of shooting and he said, ‘Don't worry. They’ll all come around.’

“And you know what? He was right. He said, ‘I’m a little laid-back, and sometimes it comes off the wrong way.’ But in the end, he’s one of the most kindhearted guys you’ll ever meet.”

The heavy Louisiana presence on the show resulted from highly successful casting visits to the state, Salsano said.

“The people from Louisiana (on the show) are all so different,” she said. “They each represent a different type of person, which is, I think, how most people are. Not everyone in New York is one way. Not everyone from New York is on ‘Sex and the City.’ And I feel like it’s a great representation of all different kinds of kids. Who’s from the city? Who’s from the country? It’s everyone’s different way of life.

“We had so many people from Louisiana (audition), it was unbelievable.

“If I could bottle the water and take it elsewhere with me, I would. Whatever they’re drinking out there is good.”